UnRecipe: Midnight In the Chocolate Chip Cookie Garden of Evil

What's this noise about evil chocolate chip cookies? Is there even such a thing?? This post is inspired by CakeSpy's new book, The Secret Lives of Baked Goods, which just came out. Jessie the Spy o' Cake invited people to share their own baked goods secrets (good or bad), so I submitted a story, which I also want to share with you, about the agony, the ecstasy and the oh-the-humanity of chocolate chip cookie obsession!

Chocolate Chip Cookies... I can't quit you - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Mixed Plate: How Wasabi Got Her Holiday Groove Back

I know what you're thinking. You're looking at the calendar, the dwindling hours left to do all your holiday baking/shopping/social calls are looming like Marley's Ghost, rattling his chains to remind you that the time draws nigh to get that Christmas Spirit in your heart... OR ELSE. Fine, so I realize that's not everyone, but I know it's a few of you out there. And it's the ones who are the real doers of the family and household, the ones who make sure all their loved ones' needs are taken care of, that no one in their life feels left out. These are the Holiday Heroes who literally break their backs for every holiday/birthday/special occasion; they never forget a special date or anniversary, they're always quick with a card or a special little gift, and they are an endless font of heartfelt generosity. Baby, sit back for a spell, this post's for you.

Give yourself the gift of a day, or at least an afternoon to stop and enjoy the holiday lights - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I think of my mother during the holidays. She went into Christmas Mode early in the year, months in advance, whipping out her sewing machine and picking out patterns for some crafty, adorable handmade holiday gift for close friends and relatives. I remember one year she made a dozen or so wreaths decorated with sewn teddy bears made out of holiday quilting fabric. Another year she made these incredible stockings full of little pockets and places to stuff goodies and sweets -- exactly the kind of stocking made for kids. Every photo had the potential to be made into that year's holiday card, which would be sent out by or before the first week of December, and she'd be the one writing notes in all of them. Wasabi Mom is happily enjoying the life of leisure, in retirement on Da Islands with Wasabi Dad in temperate climate, where the Spam Musubi roam freely. She still sends a few cards out, but no photos, since it's been many years since I've lived at home for the yearly family snapshot. She puts up a few things, but nowhere near as much decor as when I was younger. But that incredible holiday spirit stuck with me all these years, and she's remained a great inspiration to stick with that tradition of making sure cards and handmade gifts never go out of style.

Holiday Hectic Mode starting...NOW - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Fast forward a few years, and many consecutive Christmases of never forgetting to send out a holiday card or making some sort of homemade baked sweets, I find myself in that Hectic Holiday mode that my mother probably felt many years ago. I would never give up the opportunity to let my loved ones know how much I appreciate them, whether it's with cards, cookies or some other weird handmade craft monstrosity I thought was a good idea at the time. And I would never consider myself the aforementioned Holiday Hero, but I understand the desire to make sure no one feels left out during the festive season -- because everyone should be reminded that they are thought of and loved! There are many people out there who truly give it their all during this time of year, with volunteering and giving so much of their time to others. If anything, those are the people who need to be remembered and thanked for their efforts, so maybe bake them a batch of cookies or something, why dontcha?

The baked good whirlwind that capsized our kitchen - Photos by Wasabi Prime

The gesture of giving means something, even if it isn't expensive or some diamond studded big screen TV. Oy, what an ugly thing that would be, no? After many weekends baking, sugar-dusting and card-writing, I finally hit the holiday home stretch of having all the goodies packaged to mail or hand-deliver. I was a multitasking queen, prepping shortbread dough, wrapping little parcels of homemade pretzels, cookies and brownies, while catching up on the last few weeks of TV on our iPad and slowly realized, Holy Crap... what about me?

Holiday baking HQ, powered by ugly cookies and iPad with recorded TV shows - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Sounds terribly selfish, I know -- ME, ME, ME. But after all that running around, I had a moment to catch my breath and say, I think I deserve a little break. And I think that goes for anyone else out there who's in the same spot as me: feeling like it's less holiday and more checking off boxes on a list of to-do's. Holiday Fail. In the pursuit of holiday magic, the spirit disappeared. Spending too much time worrying how many misshapen "Homer" cookies had to be sacrificed to a hungry Mister, and not enough time just enjoying the fact that dammit, this really is the most wonderful time of the year!

Relax, like the hookah-smoking caterpillar! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

And so I did it -- I gave myself the best possible gift one could give onself: Time. Take an afternoon or a morning -- a whole day if you can swing it. I sought out the holiday spirit in downtown Seattle, doing some simple pleasures that I'd done before, but were in danger of being sacrificed due to a busy schedule. Perish the thought! I was prompted by some appointments that went sideways, but stuck with the original plan to head into Seattle for the morning. I wanted to see the annual gingerbread village at the downtown Sheraton Hotel, near the Seattle Convention Center, now in their 20th year. They annually task local sugar artists to make these incredible gingerbread and candied creations. I saw it last year and it was such a blood sugar sight to behold, I couldn't imagine skipping it this year. This year's theme was Disney movies, or as near as I could tell, based on each gingerbread castle's design.

Sea Monkey palace never looked this great - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Right in the lobby of the Sheraton, you can tour the underwater Neptune's kingdom from The Little Mermaid, the sultan's palace from Aladdin, the Red Queen's castle from Alice in Wonderland, The Beast's rose-decorated castle from Beauty and the Beast, and even the land of Narnia. Kind of a fairy tale/Disney mashup, it's an impressive sight to see, and the display is up right now through the holidays. It's free to view, but they are accepting donations to benefit the Northwest chapter of JDRF, which focuses on the fight against diabetes. I admit, there's a part of me that finds a little irony in a charity for diabetes being involved in a sugar-coated gingerbread village display, but hey -- it's the holidays, I have to keep my snark to a minimum, lest I be given nothing but coal this year.

Ooh... ahhh... dazzled yet? - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Let's just take a moment to admire the fact that a lot of people went through some crazy-painstaking work to put these sweet sculptures on display, shall we? Cheshire Cat agrees, kick back and enjoy.

Disney movies and sugar -- what's not to love? - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I had a nougat-filled soft spot for the Beauty and the Beast castle. I'd say of all the more recent classic hand-drawn animated films of Disney, that is by far my favorite. I'm inclined to watch it with a big plate of pasta and a bottle of wine, like so many viewings of 50 Dresses or Pretty in Pink. Another gift of Me Time I look forward to indulging in.

Market shopping done right - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Another gift to myself was taking a walk through Pike Place Market. It's in its holiday finery, with the fresh tree mini-lot at the entrance. You get a lovely whiff of fresh evergreen, then likely another whiff of delivery truck exhaust, as I went during the middle of the day. Well, it is a working market after all. But I always love coming here, rain or shine, as cheesy/touristy as that sounds -- especially during the week, since weekends can get extra busy. It's a gorgeous historic market with some of my favorite shops -- I did a quick run-through of DeLaurenti to pick up some food gifts, admired the fresh mushrooms and loved seeing the winter fruit like pomegranates stacked high. There's always something to admire and marvel at, and a walk through Pike Place Market was a reminder to do so, every day.

Holiday Sanity Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself - Photo by Wasabi Prime

So if you're feeling the pressure of the holiday season, take a moment to breathe. Better yet, take a whole afternoon, if you can. Appreciate someone else's exuberance for the holidays, as that will reinvigorate your own spirit. If you're not certain you've gone mad with harried holiday to-do's, take one look at the four-foot high pile of boxes set for delivery, and the extremely worried look on your dog's face, wondering why silly hoomins gotta be so weird. Thanks for the reality check, Indy.

This is also my holiday post for the week, as I'm taking some time to just relax, so I hope you all have a very Happy Holidays, a Merry Christmas, survived another wild Hannukah, and looking forward rocking out the family love and fellowship of Kwanzaa. Merry-merry, y'all.

Mixed Plate: Baked Goods for Goodness Sake

One of the reasons the Seattle area is such a special place is not only is it full of incredibly multitalented and creative people, those same creative and multitalented people like to get together and activate their Wondertwin powers for good. Case in point: you need sweet stuff, the new Cakespy book, Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life is FULL of sweet stuff, and for even more sweetery goodness, the second annual Will Bake for Food bake sale fundraiser extravaganza is gearing up for more sugar-addled charity goodness! Let the sugar rush... BEGIN!!!!!

Because nothing bad can happen at Tiffanys... when you're eating a cookie - Photo by Wasabi Prime

So, I'm writing this post on a wicked sugar high, thanks to the sweet little Tiffany and Co.-inspired bonbon recipe from Jesse Oleson's new book. I feel like I could flap my arms and fly to the rings of Saturn from the buttery-sweet sugarbuzz I'm on right now, these cookies are so addictive. The recipe didn't even have a picture-perfect photograph of the cookies, Jesse's adorable little drawings of anthropomorphized cookies being all sassy-like were enough for me to say, that's it, I'm making these! Best known on the interwebs as Cakespy, Jesse wrote this incredibly cute, sweetly clever cookbook-slash-illustration bonanza that is now available in bookstores and an Amazon.com account near you. It's a mix of colorful photos mingling with Jesse's signature illustrations, guiding you through each recipe. I like this book because it's got an attitude all its own. These aren't fussy desserts that will fill the hearts of the baking-fearful full of dread, they're a mix of classic comforts and easy to make treats that combine prepared sweets with homemade touches. It reminds me of a book I would have enjoyed with my mom when I was little, inspring and demystifying the art of baking, as there are a lot of recipes in here that you could do with a little one, with minimal need for ovens and sharp objects. Baking and cooking shouldn't be work or drudgery, it should be fun, creative and a way to express yourself, just like this book.

Easy-bake cookies, dangerously quick to make and eat! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

The Tiffany Bonbon recipe was super fast and easy to make -- I literally whipped up the dough in the morning, baked everything, and had it iced and decorated by the afternoon. The recipe recommends filling the cookies with something extra, like nuts, chocolate or coconut. Since I'm awash with Halloween candy, I used chocolate covered maltballs, aka, Whoppers. They were easy to push into the centers of a dough ball made with a cookie scoop, a handy tool when making these cookies, since you'll get evenly-sized shapes. Since the recipe doesn't require baking soda or baking powder, the cookies pretty much stay the same shape and size you form the dough into when you bake them. I'm already thinking of more cookies I'll make with broken up candy bars or peanut butter cups, as I've got a ton of those leftover as well. The dough for these cookies is buttery and rich, like a shortbread, but more creamy. As simple as the recipe is, you get a really satisfying cookie. It's easy to decorate and you can make it as simple or as fancy as your patience will carry you. I'm already thinking of putting this one into the Christmas cookie roster, maybe adding a little cocoa powder and doing a chocolate version, so stay tuned!

Will Bake for Food 2: The Cookie Empire Strikes Back!

The recipes in the Cakespy book are so easy, I hope you not only get this book, but use some of the recipes to make some baked goods if you're thinking of being involved in the upcoming Will Bake for Food event, happening in Seattle on Saturday, November 12th. Last year's event raised hundreds of dollars and this year's event hopes to do the same and more, fighting the good fight against hunger, with the Emergency Feeding Program being the beneficiary group this year. Unfortunately, bad timing is preventing me from being present at the event, but I still want to voice my continued support for this community effort, taking something as simple and good-hearted as a bake sale, and making it extra fabulous with well-known local bloggers, cool raffles and oh yeah -- hella delicious homemade sweets! So, please mark your calendars, tell your friends and family about this event, and do your part to help stamp out hunger in our own community.

Elegant and sweetly delicious - Photos by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: Chicken Soup for a Hot Mess of a Soul

It happens. You're doing a million and one things, going at a million and two miles and hour, not enough sleep and the only fluid intake is coffee. Getting one's health on? EPIC FAIL. So inevitably, you start feeling run-down and the flu comes in to "sweep the leg," amping the productivity of snot rockets to Eleven. What else can you do, but go into Sick Food Mode.

Dr. Indy says: I  prescribe lots of rest and snuggling the dog in between naps - Photo by Wasabi Prime

This was actually a while back when I got sick, it's just taken me this-freakin'-long to post about it. I had been traveling, sharing many germs with many strangers on a long flight, so it was no surprise when I developed a cough and head to toe body aches that endured for over a week and a half. Despite the nasty punishment of a cold, I sometimes wonder if it's also karma's way of intentionally putting up barriers to keep you from running yourself completely into the ground. I managed to catch up on movies and totally throw Mr. Wasabi's Netflix recommendation list into an estrogen-fueled calamity with selections that included Bright Star, Young Victoria and The Duchess. Mwah-hah-haaaaaaaah!

It's interesting to see what you end up craving when you're not feeling well. Aside from massive amounts of hot lemon ginger tea, the main thing I was craving was food that didn't require a lot of effort to prepare. I had the odd hankering for something sweet, so I took to eating an entire freaking bag of Kamuela Gourmet granola, which was full of big chunks of oats, nuts and seeds, sprinkled heavily with cinnamon, mixed in with plain yogurt. I wish I had a website to order more of this granola, as it was addictively good -- it was one of the things I brought back from Hawaii. Strangely, the bag had no website! I also had a bag of passionfruit or lilikoi shortbread from my absolute favorite cookie company, Kelly Boy's. Another small, local company who makes great product and frustratingly has no website, but if you're in Hawaii and are in a Longs Drugs store, they usually sell it there. My favorite is the Peanut Braddah cookies, which are peanut butter cookies so massive, it's literally a handprint on it to give it that crosshatch design. Kelly Boy's cookies are super crumbly and rarely survive the trip home intact, so you always wind up with almost a cup's worth of crumbs, which are just as tasty sprinkled on plain yogurt or ice cream. I never let one bit of those cookies go to waste when I have them!

Best food to enjoy while sick -- no preparation, plenty of flavor! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Generally when people feel under the weather, the go-to food is chicken soup. When I started feeling well enough to putter around the kitchen, I had the basics to make a simple soup -- chicken broth, chicken breasts, carrots, onion, peas and sweet potatoes -- but I wanted something heartier. I had it in my NyQuil-addled brain to make sort of a shepherd's pie version of a chicken stew, topping it with thin slices of the sweet potato, versus the traditional mashed potatoes. At the time, the dish had sensible potential, and despite my adherence to the cold medication's warning not to operate heavy machinery, they should probably include a suggestion not to come up with wacky meal ideas. Not that the resulting dish was bad, by any means. I made a basic chicken and vegetable stew, cooking everything in a pot, but I think I added too much chicken broth towards the end, assuming the oven would just magically "make up the difference" somehow, reducing it to a thick gravy. I poured the runny stew into a casserole dish, covered it with seasoned slices of sweet potato, and into the oven it went to bake off. When the potato slice topping was cooked and crisped, I tried using a spatula to cut out a portion of the casserole, but I had to switch to a ladle, as it was essentially a baked stew. I poured it into a bowl and ate it with a spoon, and to be perfectly honest, it hit the spot. Heartier than a soup, but something you could savor with a spoon. Make all the comments you want, comparing it to the annoyingly-named "stoup" that Rachael Ray calls her soup/stew concoctions, but I have to say, this chicken soup for my hot mess of a soul was delicious, and by the time all the leftovers were gone, I was feeling better enough to get back to my workaholic ways. Winner!

Chicken soupy-stew for the sickened soul  - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Mixed Plate: Keeping the Holidays Merry, Bright and on a Massive Sugar High

The decorative lights are aglow. The tree is festooned with the sparkling baubles of a seasonal gala. It makes one want to draw loved ones near and sing the Christmas carols of olde, such as: Jingle bells/Batman smells/Robin laid an egg/the Batmobile lost its wheel/and Joker got a-waaaaaaaaay....

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...cookies - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Oh, come on, like you totally didn't irritate your chorus teacher by swapping out the lyrics for every Christmas pageant. What, no chorus class? Not even a glee club...? Well, they probably don't even call it "Christmas pageants" anymore either. It's all holiday-this and nondenominational-seasonal-celebration-that. Not that I'm a regular visitor to God's house every Sunday. I think I'd probably go up in flames were I to step through the doorway of a church, or at least recoil in a sinister fit of hissing. But that doesn't mean I don't love Christmas, dammit.

I like the holidays because it's the one time of year from November on (and sometimes from October, if we're going by the retail calendar), where you feel the karmic tally coming due, and you have to make good on the friendly smiles to strangers, taking the extra effort to wish people well on their day, and taking time to remember the people who mean the most to you. You don't do this because you're concerned Santa will swap out that pony you've been asking for with a big lump of coal -- you make the extra effort to remind yourself that this state of mind can be a reality, and that it's never too late to live kindly. It makes other people feel good. It makes you feel good. And it feels possible that the old adage of keeping a heart full of goodwill doesn't have to be only one time of the year. At least until you jump on the scales after that second quart of eggnog and decide, oh eff it, I'm wearing grubby sweats and not leaving the house for two months.

Apologies in advance to dentists everywhere - Photos by Wasabi Prime

This Christmas, I set about to doing the usual rounds of baking like a crazy mofo. I think participating in the fundraiser, Will Bake For Food, back in November was a great Spring Training for getting my holiday game face on. It adequately honed my Eye of the Baking Tiger. Don't worry, I didn't bake any tigers. What I did manage to make were several batches of sugar cookies, some regular and some with cocoa powder. They were all iced and sugared with little decorative flourishes, packaged into cellophane bags tied with ribbon and unceremoniously shoved into a dozen Priority Mail boxes and shipped off to exotic places like Honolulu, Hilo, and Colfax. I also made a few batches of buttermilk pumpkin scones. I defrosted more of that massive supply of roasted pumpkin from Thanksgiving and managed to find a recipe that was both festive and manages to curb my craving for Starbucks pumpkin scones. I used this recipe from Epicurious -- everything minus the glaze, because I needed the scones to be mailing-friendly and a sticky gooey glaze wouldn't travel well. So if you do use this recipe sans-glaze, bump up the sugar amount to 3/4 to a whole cup, depending on how sweet you like your scones. The spice content of the scones are dy-no-MITE, in a totally good way, so don't skimp on the recipe's calling for such a large amount of ginger and cinnamon.

Have a scone, Santa, Baby - Photo by Wasabi Prime

So, I'll just leave you with my random sugar-addled thoughts on Christmas, the holidays as a whole, and wish everyone the best as we enter into the home stretch of holly-jolly merriment. Eat, drink, be merry and be safe this Christmas weekend! (And don't shoot your eye out)

Mixed Plate: Will Bake for Food (and a good cause)

If you live in the Seattle area and haven't been completely inundated with #bake4food hashtag posts over Twitter, take note that Saturday November 20th, aka Tomorrow Morning, is the Will Bake For Food event, where local food bloggers are gathering at the University Congregational Church in the U-District to sell home-baked goods for the benefit of local charity, Northwest Harvest, which supplies goods to local food banks and programs in our area.

The cake originally said "Will Bake 4 Food," but it was awful. Extra icing coverup. - Photo by Wasabi Prime

There are MANY AWESOME PEOPLE who are donating their time and baking efforts to supporting the fight against hunger. I was just lucky to be asked to join the Blogger Baking Brigade. It's also a food drive, so if you come, bring some canned foods and/or a monetary donation. NW Harvest has a list of things they're especially in need of, namely infant and baby items.

If you come, I would love to meet every one of you and thank you personally for helping to fight the Big Bad of hunger in America. What baked wares will I be offering? Well, have a sneak preview and see what I'll be setting out: Maple-Iced Sugar Cookies and Peanut Butter Chai Cookies.

C is for Cookie and that's damn good enough for me - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Don't worry, I made more than four bags. And yes, they're all packaged like a Martha Stewart OCD Freakazoid because... that's just what I am. So come on out this Saturday, meet and greet the bloggers, get a wicked sugar high, and do it all in the name of a good cause. Hollaback, yo!

Much thanks goes out to the organizers of Will Bake for Food, "The Jennys" -- Jenny Miller of Rainy Day Gal and Jenny Richards of Purple House Dirt. Two fantastic gals who are seeking to change the world, one sugar-sprinkled day at a time. Also big thanks to Luke Burbank of the podcast Too Beautiful to  Live for giving Will Bake for Food a shoutout on his Nov 12th podcast. Download it on iTunes for free or listen on their website and you can hear him eating the bribe of whoopie pies and cookies I sent to his office. Monsieur Burbank, yet again, I'm so sorry I derailed your health with the half-stick of butter that's probably in each gigundo whoopie pie.

See you Saturday! - Photos by Wasabi Prime